Dreamcast-Talk.com

Got some info on Fable! I was talking with Dene Carter, founder of Blue Box Games and one of Fable's creators, and he told me the game never got past a paper design phase on Dreamcast. At the time, the game was actually "Wishworld" which was a very different game from what Fable eventually became. So technically, Fable, as we now know it, was never actually a Dreamcast game.

He also said the reason it didn't end up a Dreamcast game is because talks with Sega fell through. If he remembers correctly, it was because they [Sega] wanted it to be a launch title and weren't offering enough money.

At the time we were working on ‘Wishworld’ (which eventually morphed into Fable, but was *very* different). We only got into initial talks with Sega, so the only work we really did on it was paper design.

I think they wanted us to be a launch title, and the money they had available wasn’t enough to really guarantee the quality of what we wanted to make. It was a looooong time ago, so I could be misremembering some aspects. I, for example, was very much in favour of our making a Dreamcast game. I loved the console! Way ahead of its time and - for me - one of the best periods in console history

I remember Tom Kalinske talking about the money they spent for the launch titles, sounds like it was not enough to secure this title.
Usually companies don't talk about this.

Just talked to a dev about The Mummy. He told me "bits" were running on Dreamcast "in some form". So it doesn't sound like it was too far along.

There was a 'flying game' example project that came with the Dreamcast SDK, which we used as the starting point for both versions (as we could build for either platform). Then built a Playstation emulaton layer onto that, so the PC and Dreamcast versions were running all the original versions logic, we replaced all the graphics system calls.

Bits, in some form. [When asked if it was running on DC hardware]

It was cancelled during development when Sega pulled the plug on the Dreamcast.

Got a bit of info on Deer Avenger 3. I asked the former president of Hypnotix how far along the game was and he said "Probably ~50%.". The build currently in the hands of a collector is just a rough demo. A much more complete version should exist.

Ha imagine Halo on the dreamcast!

Got some info on Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. It was about 90% complete.

The Dreamcast version was about 90% done. We had been playing it and testing, and adjusting. The biggest issue for the Dreamcast version for Indy wasn't functionality, it was monetary. Dreamcast sales weren't where the Lucas folks wanted them to be, and the cost of manufacturing and marketing were high -- that was the main reason it was cancelled. We had made improvements to the control system over the PC (and Nintendo) version, and the graphics looked good. Load times were a little slow, but that could have been improved upon. It was just ultimately a marketing decision.

wawa boy is it messy chuggy on N64

pcwzrd13 wrote:Got some info on Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. It was about 90% complete.

The Dreamcast version was about 90% done. We had been playing it and testing, and adjusting. The biggest issue for the Dreamcast version for Indy wasn't functionality, it was monetary. Dreamcast sales weren't where the Lucas folks wanted them to be, and the cost of manufacturing and marketing were high -- that was the main reason it was cancelled. We had made improvements to the control system over the PC (and Nintendo) version, and the graphics looked good. Load times were a little slow, but that could have been improved upon. It was just ultimately a marketing decision.

I'd always wondered about that game. The PC version had higher minimum specs than even games like Half Life did, and Factor 5 stated that the N64's cartridge format and the ability to stream quickly assets from it was a major asset to getting the game running as the levels were way too big to fit into ram. It always made me curious how well disc based consoles from the time would have handled it, as the PS1 and DC versions were both canceled

All I know is the levels in that game are absolutely huge and my old computer took over a full minute to load most of them, so it'd have been a massive undertaking regardless. But Factor 5 had some of the most insanely talented programmers in the industry at the time, so who knows.

mistamontiel wrote:wawa boy is it messy chuggy on N64

It's not, the N64 version is an absolute miracle for the hardware. High res graphics with no draw distance and very detailed textures, advanced lighting and particle effects, all running close to 30 fps most of the time in some extremely huge levels. My first time playing it, I was just in a constant state of disbelief that it was actually running on my console.

Would highly recommend reading this old interview regarding some of the tricks the devs had to do in order to make it work, it's insane how talented Factor 5 was.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/11/10 ... ndy-to-n64

Ragfish wrote:

pcwzrd13 wrote:Got some info on Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. It was about 90% complete.

The Dreamcast version was about 90% done. We had been playing it and testing, and adjusting. The biggest issue for the Dreamcast version for Indy wasn't functionality, it was monetary. Dreamcast sales weren't where the Lucas folks wanted them to be, and the cost of manufacturing and marketing were high -- that was the main reason it was cancelled. We had made improvements to the control system over the PC (and Nintendo) version, and the graphics looked good. Load times were a little slow, but that could have been improved upon. It was just ultimately a marketing decision.

I'd always wondered about that game. The PC version had higher minimum specs than even games like Half Life did, and Factor 5 stated that the N64's cartridge format and the ability to stream quickly assets from it was a major asset to getting the game running as the levels were way too big to fit into ram. It always made me curious how well disc based consoles from the time would have handled it, as the PS1 and DC versions were both canceled

All I know is the levels in that game are absolutely huge and my old computer took over a full minute to load most of them, so it'd have been a massive undertaking regardless. But Factor 5 had some of the most insanely talented programmers in the industry at the time, so who knows.

It isnt much a issue considering the dc has 3 times the amount of ram or double even with n64 expansion. Not to mention the dreamcast already does a couple of massive stream only games like crazy taxi 1+2 and skies of arcadia and even soul reaver.

Judging by what pcwizard says it would have handled it just fine and even with enhancements. Id rather see factor 5 do a dc game from scratch, considering they had a great reputation for being technically sound.